Damon Robinson, who moved into the vacant house in 2006, and another neighbour say that Mr Garrido acted as caretaker of the home when it lay empty. In 2006 Mr Robinson’s girlfriend called police after she saw tents and children in the backyard, but the responding deputy did not uncover the compound.
A third neighbour, Janice Deitrich, 66, said that Mr Garrido visited and helped to feed an elderly neighbour who lived in the house before Mr Robinson.
Local residents called Mr Garrido “Crazy Phil”, partly because he ranted about hearing voices from God, and some knew that he was a registered sex offender. But they assumed parole authorities were keeping a close watch on him. He was convicted three decades ago of abducting and raping a casino worker in a Nevada warehouse that a former detective described as a “sex palace” for playing out his fantasies.
An estate agent told The Times that he saw Ms Dugard and the children many times at the family home. Deepal Karunaratne, 54, a broker with Altera Signature Properties of Antioch, said that “Allissa” helped with the design of his business cards.
“I thought she was very smart, well-dressed, handling the business for him. I regarded her as his daughter,” he said.
Asked why he thought she had never asked him to call the police, he said: “I think she probably must have been in fear for her life, or for the lives of her children. Who knows what threats they had made?”
Timothy Allen, the owner of East County Glass & Window in Pittsburg, California, said that Mr Garrido would come into the shop with the girls. “They looked normal. They spoke really well and one even shook my hand,” he said.
Over the past year Mr Garrido was overtaken by his religious fanaticism, business clients and neighbours said. On his blog, called “Voices Revealed”, he claims that he has the ability to hear the voices in people’s heads.
Maria Christenson, owner of the Christenson Recycling Centre, described how the couple came into her office and asked for a $2,000 advance. He told her that they had plans to start a backyard church.
